2000Pro hogging Shares

[Naro]

We have a 7 workstation Peer to Peer XP Home network. On one workstation is the Organize folder, shared openly to the network. We use Lotus Organizer, and it points to this shared folder so we can all access and share schedule files. No problems.

Now,recently took out one of the XP Home workstations and put in an older workstation running 2000pro. This workstation does NOT use Organizer, and shares nothing but our dsl line (as do all others). Now, whenever the 2000 workstation is on (and never when it is off) most users are getting access errors indicating too many shares are in use. Therefore they have to try repeatedly before their Organizer program accesses the shared folder and launches their schedule. Trying repeatedly DOES achieve the connection. There is no way we're using more than 10 shares, and if a different machine (XP home) is connected in place of the 2000 machine, there is no problem.

Since I can't imagine what settings to look for in the network settings (heck, everyone's the same..nothing unique) I'm starting to wonder if the problem may be hardware. Perhaps a noisy NIC in the 2000 machine. Any suggestions? I never use 2000, so I have no idea if I'm overlooking something simple.

 

[bcastner]

XP Home has a five connection limit.

XP Pro and Windows 2000 have a ten connection limit.

Some possible remedies:

1. The default for XP is to make the use of a share persistent. On each of the workstations you need to clear this: net use * /Persistent:No

2. Change to a shortcut on the Desktop for the application share. Write something like fix_conss.CMD and point a New Shortcut to this new .CMD file customized for your circumstances:

@echo off
net use G: \\server_name\sharename /Persistent:no
CALL my_shared_application.exe
net use G: /delete

3. Win2k will assert itself as Browser Master in this setting, and will win any browser election. Fix tis:
[ul]
[li]Right-click My Computer,Administrative Tools, Services.
Double click the Computer Browser services entry, Stop the service, and then set its startup desposition to Manual.[/li]

[li]Or, use the Registry Editor(Regedtit.exe) to edit the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Browser\Parameters
"MaintainServerList"

Right click, Modify, and change the value of this key to FALSE (alll upper case).[/li]
[/ul]

You probably should upgrade the "server" to XP Pro. You will not lose any installed applications or Data; although you should spend some time at Windows Update afterwards.

.

 

[Naro]

Thanks Bill,
I don't know why I assumed that XP Home had a 10 connection limit. Easy enough for me to upgrade the "server" to XP Pro with all Updates. That's what I'll do pretty soon. If I understand this correctly, that step alone will probably solve my problem since there aren't ever more than seven computers in the network.
UNLESS - - UNLESS the Shares captured when any workstation launches Organizer to access the shared datafiles would PERSIST even after that workstation closes the application? If THAT is the case (i.e., they Persist until the workstation logs off) then one solution may be user education. I think they're launching and closing Organizer frequently daily. They could just leave it minimized. Or is that the purpose of your Step #1... ?

The 2000 workstation is such a lonely part of this little network that it never needs to access the Shared folder or be accessed itself. If it weren't for the desire to access our network's dsl router from that 2000 box, it wouldn't have to even be in the network at all. So I'll do your step #3 to make it stop asserting itself as Browser Master in any case.

Finally..and please forgive my ignorance about your Step #2 : the Application is not being shared. Each workstation runs its own Lotus Organizer. They are pointing to a shared folder (on the "server") containing the schedule datafiles, but everyone is running their own iteration of the application. So I'm not clear what step #2 does and I'd like to understand this better if you have the patience to try to explain it to a dummy.

As always, your knowledge and willingness to share it is much appreciated.
.Naro.

 

[bcastner]

The connection persists by default for fifteen minutes.

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...port/kb/articles/q138/3/65.asp&NoWebContent=1

You can find the LAN Autodisconnect parameter in the registry under the subtree HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE under the subkey: \System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

NOTE: The preceding entry must be located on the computer that has the share or shares.

The purpose is to disconnect idle sessions after a set number of minutes. The number of minutes can be set at a command prompt using the net config server command.

For example, to set the Autodisconnect value to 30 minutes, you would run the following command line:

net config server /autodisconnect:30

The valid value range is -1 to 65535 minutes at the command line. To disable Autodisconnect set it to -1.

Setting Autodisconnect to 0 does not turn it off and results in very fast disconnects, within a few seconds of idle time.

Oddly, after telling you how to set the autodisconnect timeout value using net config, it then proceeds to tell you not to do it that way. See the article cited above.

Now I do not anything specific about Lotus Organizer, but somewhere there is a shortcut icon to launch the program. If I right-click the icon, Properties I can learn something like the file to be executed is:

"\Program Files\Lotus\Organizer\lotorg.exe"

I would with this information quickly open Notepad and write:

=============================
@echo off
net use L: \\my_server_name\my_share_name /persistent:no
CALL "\Program Files\Lotus\Organizer\lotorg.exe"
net use l: /delete
net connection \\my_server_name /Delete
==============================

In Notepad I would then File, Save as..., %windir%\system32\lot_organizer.cmd

Finally, I would right-click the Lotus organizer icon once more, select Properties, and edit the target string to read:

%windir%\system332\lot_organizer.cmd

What does this do?

It initiates the connection with the net use command.
It runs Organizer
When the user exits Organizer it removes the file share
It then forces a logical dis-connection to the "server" with the NET SESSION command.
And returns to XP

There is no trace of the connection anymore as far as the "server" \\my_server is concerned.







Users Helping Users

 

[Naro]

Thanks Bcastner!
I get it now. Appreciate your help.